“Sparks Flew” Now the rest of the story.

UPDATED

No remorse for causing a disturbance, resisting arrest, I sure do hope the law will be applied fairly and equally and not dropped based on nationality. This was a premeditated attempt to shut down the rights of others to speak.

 

You can hear the charge “disturbing the peace” and was she ever, it was rude, embarrassing and everything we teach our children not to be. Its really sad or disgusting how we were expected to listen to the opposition to LNG by a few chiefs, then when you have an honorable speaker, the equivalent to our major from our neighbor community speaking, we tolerate this much abuse.

Would someone who did this to the major of Smithers be charged? Or let off the hook?
If it would have been the PM we know men in flack jackets would have appeared.

Let’s do a better job of protecting OUR elected leaders in the future.

In part, understanding the problem comes down in part to knowing how the players are connected. Melanie Forsythe is the daughter of Lucy Gagnon, and granddaughter of Mable Forsythe. Everything is connected to the theft of the title of Chief Woos (Darlene Glaim) and the giving of the name to Frank Alec Jr. It’s not just a name, it’s the control of mega millions of dollars’ worth of unceded land.

Melanie Forsythe is the daughter of Chief Kloum Khun (Alphonse Gagnon). Laksamshu - Medzeyex (Owl House) and she was the one who said, read it for yourself, she identifies what most residents have always known, the chiefs do not represent the position of the Wet’suwet’en people living in Witset or any other community.

Melanie was clearly showing us the speakers were speaking for the majority of Wet’suwet’en living in Moricetown.

Thus begs the question who remaining do the Office of Wet’suwet’en represent, those living in Smithers, or a few in Prince George or Vancouver?

They need to disclose who supports them, as its clear none of the communities support the Office Chiefs.

 

“she represents only 659 people on the reserve”

 

Let us not forget the other stolen land title, that of Chief Smogelgem by the nephew of Alponce and Lucy Gagnon and you have yet another massive power takeover of mega millions of dollars’ worth of unceded land, and tucking it all under the wing of one family. There are lots of rumours in the mill that these women under high pressure to give in to the chiefs who could be in serious trouble without consent.

Consider also the following the wife (Lucy Gagnon) of the head chief, Chief Kloum Khun (Alphonse Gagnon) is one of the primary negotiators for the band with CGL. Here we have now a 3 way fingers in the pie all in favour of one family, so booting 3 women chiefs had more to do with taking their unceded land than it had to do with rituals or principles. There is no such existence of laws that allow for stripping of EQUAL ranking Hereditary Chiefs.

So in simple English his own chief’s wife is working with CGL and then we have his daughter telling the elected band council you cannot do that, you cannot speak on behalf of your own people.

Let me quote from the Prince George News Tuesday, Mar. 5th, 2019

One of the communities supporting the Coastal Gas Links (CGL) pipeline say it is creating jobs and reducing the number of people on social assistance. Executive Director for Witset First Nation, Lucy Gagnon said the band is partnered with companies Kyah Resources to create jobs for the project. “We still have quite a large client list on social assistance, and we are doing training right now as we speak in first aid and security.” There are 10 people from Witset employed in the initial startup construction with more job opportunities expected as the project progresses. “If we can reduce our social assistance clientele that’s good for our community as well,” said Gagnon. The community received $1.5 million to sign onto the project and an additional $1.5 million after it started. Gagnon said until they decided how to invest the money it is remaining in a savings account.

So in a nutshell on the one hand we have the claim that nobody but the chiefs can negotiate the land settlements of the Wet’suwet’en then on the other say nothing about one of the chief’s wives in this case Lucy Gagnon. Lucy’s mother Mable Forsythe along with Lucy’s daughter, one of the two screaming at the elected chief Sandra George for supporting CGL at the Pro LNG Rally at Bovil Square, while their own mother and daughter do exactly that?

The hypocrisy is astounding!

When you think about it, Chief Woos was groomed into the position of Hereditary Chief by Goyloget, her aunt Florence Hall, Gordon Halls late wife, as well as Roy Morris. The new replacement is completely in the wrong lineage as an alternative, and made by all the wrong people.

First you cannot strip away a hereditary title, no such law exists but in the minds of a few living men, however in the event Chief Woos passed away for whatever reason, it would still be off limits for the chiefs of other clans to decide her replacement.

If this ever ends up in the Supreme Court, and I have no doubt it someday might just do that, the court will never allow a free for all in picking who the next Chief Woos will be, if the rule of Wet’suwet’en law is clear that a chief can be ousted, it must also be clear as to why and the terms spelled out so the court can determine Wet’suwet’en law as followed. Right now it’s so bad I doubt the courts want anything to do with it, in the absence of laws to support what the Chiefs in the Office did. It’s by no accident they do not recognize the authority of the Supreme Court, nobody who breaks the law would support the law that will deny them a dictatorship control of billions of dollars in land and resource values.

In one conversation on Facebook I read that Mabel Forsyth groomed Frank Alec Jr. leaving one to ponder, if it takes so many years to groom someone for the position of Hereditary Chief, imagine the incredible ability to see 5 to 10 years in advance that Darlene Glaim would be stripped of her title.

One might even say, barring their ability to read the future, and then the only other explanation was a conspiracy to steal her title.

So was it any surprise that Mable would show up in protest? She is only a wing chief, but she is also standing by the theft of title from a true Hereditary Chief, who was positioned there following all the proper Wet’suwet’en laws and protocol.

Yes we must respect out elders, but not so much when they do things so disrespectfully.

From the Facebook Files

We did a partial rebuttal to Melanie Forsythe’s claims.

Melanie Forsythe: “The organizer of today’s pro-LNG gathering who intentionally cancelled the event and then put it on again to prevent us from attending asked Witsuwit’en Wing-Chief, Timberwolf, Mabel Forsythe to do the welcoming which she refused, twice.”

Truth is it had nothing to do with intentional; the original gathering was to have been led by an organization named “First Nations LNG Alliance”, a collective of First Nations participating in, and supportive of, responsible LNG development in BC. After they cancelled it due to their own schedule conflict, local speakers from the Witset Band felt it was important to speak out on behalf of their community. Mable was sitting there from the start, so out of courtesy Bonnie approached her and asked her is she would like to do the welcome speech, after all she jumps at the opportunity for every event in Smithers when offered the chance.

Melanie Forsythe:  I, Melanie Forsythe, on behalf of my Mom, Timberwolf and Witsuwit’en Hereditary Chief, Woos, Frank Alec Sr., wanted to shout down Bonnie George who had no right to speak on behalf of the Gitdumden clan on the Cas Yikh house territory because she’s not a member of Cas Yikh.

These Wet’suwet’en speakers were not speaking on behalf of any clan at all, or ever said they were. They spoke naming the clan they were from and were speaking on behalf of the Witset Band as members of that community.

Melanie Forsythe:  When the Witset, Band Chief said she’s speaking on behalf of everyone I started chanting, “Shame on you,” over and over, because she represents only people on reserve. Not all of those Indians support the pipeline.

Since when was it polite or even civil to deny others the right to speak, or the right to hear what was being said? That display was so very primate, like drunken bums seeking attention. Since when were “Indians” who do not live on the reserve, not considered eligible voters on the reserve? We allowed those speaking against the pipeline to have a voice on the Bovil stage, you have no right whatsoever to deny this freedom of speech by other members of your own band.

Melanie Forsythe:  The Hereditary Chiefs speak on their behalf and nobody speaks for them. The Supreme Court in a 20-year long Delgamuukw court case agreed the Hereditary Chiefs have rights over their 22-thousand kilometres of land. The Band was not mentioned in that case.

First let’s address speaking for the Chiefs, nobody on that stage ever at any time said they were speaking on behalf of the chiefs, if you spent more time listening instead of yelling you would have known that. Now speaking about 20-year long Delgamuukw court case, the court never said the chiefs own the rights, it said the exact opposite, it said the ownership is shared communally, look up the meaning, it means by the community who voted for Sandra George to represent them.

Melanie Forsythe:  My Mom has paid land taxes for 47-years on Cas Yikh territory/Smithers which is more than he ever did. I was laser focused on telling the Band Chief to go back to the Rez when, I didn’t see it, but Janet apparently hit a cop who arrested her. I immediately followed them because Janet needed a witness because there were three cops and one of her.

I am staggered by your language “indians” ‘rez” seriously your not all there, you are a member of that so called “rez” so are your parents, and you have the right to vote there as well. Your issue is you lost the election to the majority of “indians” who “rez’ at Witset.

I could hardly write that last reply to Melanie without feeling I was insulting generations of elders while trying to write this in her modern day language.



Thanks for having taken the time to visit and read our articles. I had my say, feel free to post your thoughts as well, be part of making a difference.
JLS

2 thoughts on ““Sparks Flew” Now the rest of the story.

  • JLS
    October 14, 2019 at 1:24 pm
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    We received a grapevine message on a related topic, that when Freda was part of the previous band council that she made sure this ‘goverment puppet” band council also sent funds to her Unist’ot’en healing center. Also this so called puppet goverment (referring to Witset Band Council) I will post verbatim what we were given. “big chief Warner Naziel is also working for the government puppets through the health station teaching his made up history to men uneducated men.”

    Reply
  • Avatar
    October 14, 2019 at 7:46 pm
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    Everything you wrote is exactly what I thought! She said she was a reporter. But she called us the Indians. She called my brother Les a drunk, She is from our reserve but has never lived there yet is employed by our band. It’s annoying when people work for our community and still call it down! We are the public we are entitled to the information that CGL has to offer, but we never get to listen in peace because of the protesters. These are informational sessions and therefore we should be able to listen without feeling intimidated by the people who protest!

    Reply

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